Social network communities provide useful and convenient communication between users. For example, some social networks provide each user with an individual website, and may provide each user with an ability to search among the individual websites, to link individual ones of the websites to one another in a desired fashion, or to otherwise utilize the websites in a desired fashion. In these and other types of social networks, one or more such websites (or similar websites, and/or portions thereof) may be provided to serve as common forums for some or all of the members of the relevant social network.
Thus, such social networks may serve as valuable tools for individuals and/or businesses, and may be used, e.g., for discussions, information sharing, marketing, and collections of user feedback. Thus, although such social network communities may include a central authority which governs operations thereof, the day-to-day functions of such social network communities include the providing of platforms for use in the free expression of ideas and opinions.
Nonetheless, it is generally desirable to provide reasonable limits on such expressions. For example, it is generally desirable to limit hateful, violent, inciting, or other forms of abusive expressions of ideas/opinions. It also may be desirable to prevent or limit certain fraudulent or other undesirable types of commercial activities (e.g., unsolicited offers, advertisements, emails, or other spamming activities). Consequently, many social network communities provide one or more mechanisms for collecting reports of such abuse on the part of one or more users. For example, users may be allowed to report abusive behavior on the part of another user to the central control/authority of the social network community in question. In this way, for example, abusive users may theoretically be held responsible for their actions.
In practice, however, many social network communities may include a large number of users and/or a relatively limited central authority. Consequently, it may be difficult for the central authority to provide an appropriate response to reports of abusive user behavior.